Concerts: Artist Bios

Jennifer Johnson Cano, Mezzo-Soprano

Jennifer Johnson Cano is a naturally gifted singer noted for her commanding stage presence and profound artistry with a warm, velvety timbre that has garnered critical acclaim. Ms. Cano joined The Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera after winning the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2008, made her Met debut during the 2009-2010 season, and has since given over 100 Metropolitan Opera performances. Among her honors are a First Prize winner of the 2009 Young Concert Artist International Auditions, 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant and 2014 George London Award. This season, Ms. Cano bows as Orfeo in Orfeo and Euridice with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and as The Sharp Eared Fox in the concert version of Janacek’s Cunning Little Vixen with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich, and with The Cleveland Orchestra in Cleveland and on tour in Vienna and Luxembourg. Orchestral engagements include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York, London and Paris; and Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic and Colorado Symphony Orchestra. A dedicated recitalist and chamber musician, she performs with pianist Christopher Cano at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and the Tucson Desert Song Festival with a program of songs and arias that spans three centuries by composers Purcell, Argento, Britten, Barber, Bernstein and Jonathan Dove. In 2014, she released her debut recital recording, Unaffected: Live from the Savannah Voice Festival, recorded completely live and unedited. Her most recent recording of Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1: Jeremiah with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra on Naxos received high praise from the critics. “Jennifer Johnson Cano brings depth of tone and a noble resolve to the concluding Lamentation and just for once Lenny’s cathartic pay-off is deafeningly quiet.” (Gramophone)